Like most of the watchers of this drama, I too watched this solely because of Xiao Zhan. The drama was quite good but, it left me a little disappointed. I expected a drama to which I could atleast give a 8.5 rating, which I could not because of its many flaws.

This drama is based on the story of young heroes of army, who strived hard to become the legendary Ace Troops. It tells us about their lives and dreams and how they made it through all the dark situations, which forced them to make difficult choices regarding their life and career. This drama revolves around Gao Liang, Gu YiYe and Jiang NanZheng. They came from different backgrounds and have different personalities. Although, Gao Liang and Gu YiYe were rivals in both career and love, they were great friends and cherished eachother.

The character development in this drama was an aspect that I liked. With their passing time in the army, all the characters learned new meanings and aspects of life, which became turning points in their lives. Gu YiYe's character arc was the best out of the three. As the story went on, he transformed from an proud, arrogant, know-it-all soldier to an ideal person, without altering his original traits.

The pace of this drama was really draggy. I had to fast forward many times. But, the ending was really heart warming. The romance plot in this was just meh, excepet for YiYe and A'Xiu's part. They were a perfect match. Although, YiYe married A'Xiu out of responsibility, it then turned out to be true love. I really liked it when A'Xiu told that she would rather squeeze in the small house that let YiYe take off his uniform. She had someting that noone else could give him. Another thing that I loved in this drama was the portrayal of the bond between the soldiers. They know how to care for others as well as fight against eachother.

Xiao Zhan's acting was just amazing. He delivered an emotionally intense performance in this. Johnny Huang and Elaine Zhong's acting was good, though not as memorable as Xiao Zhan's. The supporting characters like A'Xiu, Zheng Yuan too did an amazing job. I also loved the makeup used in the last few episodes. It made the actors look older and mature. It was just perfect!

The OSTs were stunning. They were perfect for this drama, especially the ending song. They helped to enhance the feelings in this drama.

Overall, it was a nice drama. It helped me to learn more about China's military. This drama also helped to lay out the advancement of military technology over four decades. However, I have to warn that this drama may turn out very confusing sometimes because of its flaws in the story. But, some of the mediocrity of the story will cancelled out due to the quality of the acting. So, if you like military genre and is a follower of Xiao Zhan, this drama will be a worthy watch.